Reborn As A Ghost: Time To Build My Undead Army!

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"It can't be…! To be killed by this… damn dog…!"

Halberoth, who had lived for hundreds of years and devoured countless innocents with his strange, miasmic slime body, perished!

BOOOMMM!!!

"W-We did it…"

"Catarina…"

"We avenged… you…"

"Big… sis…"

At the same time as his death, Tear, Takeshi, and Laura passed out, and so did Silva, while Blackie barely managed to stay awake, slowly reducing to his base form.

"Awoooooo!"

He howled one last time, quickly manipulating his shadows and bringing everyone with him, running towards where he could smell the scent of their friends.

Meanwhile, Fabian, his friends, and Nia watched the swirling mass of black miasma that Halberoth had left behind, a doppelganger that shared a large part of his stats and powers, but lacked his soul and mind, being a mindless monster that obeyed his orders.

"That thing's not dead yet…!" Fabian said. "Did it divided itself or something?!"

"We have to take it down or we'll never be freed from this damn place!" Spectra said.

"But how?! We're already all exhausted…" Garon sighed.

"I-If only Maria or Lucifer were here…" Nia muttered. "Children… Perhaps we should simply…"

"Run away? We can't!" Nick said. "The only thing we can do is… wait! But I don't want to wait… I'm tired of waiting and being an absolute useless piece of crap! That's the reason why I ended dying in the first place… Why we were all sacrificed to that ugly skeleton…"

"Nick…" Beery sighed. "B-But… What can we do?"

"It is odd though." Fabian suddenly commented. "That thing is not reacting at all… Is it dumb or something? Maybe it lacks the intelligence of its master somehow."

"It is much smaller…" Nia said. "Nyx and Celes are sleeping but…"

"We should try attacking it! If we can distract it and let it show us the crystal for a second… One of us could sneak an attack and break it!" Garon suddenly said.

"T-That's… not a bad idea, actually!" Spectra said. "If we can do that much then… By all means!"

"…" Fabian thought about it in silence, but after having seen how everyone was doing their best in this fight, he couldn't simply choose the most secure paths, he had to do something himself. "Okay, let's do it…!"

Drinking their last Mana Potions, the children channeled all their magic into single, powerful spells. The plan was simple, three of them would attack it, the other would attack the crystal once it was shown.

And they would do it all from the skies, hoping for the beast to not come all the way there… Though there were risks, it was a good idea if they wanted to get out of this situation as fast as they could!

"[Demonic Spiritual Flame Spear: Ifrit's Fang]!"

"[Miasmic Poison Winds: Thanatos' Hand]!"

"[Abyssal Dark Wood: Fist of Nature]!"

Garon, Nick, and Beery conjured what they thought was their strongest spells so far. Combining and fusing all their magic power into a single point and shaping it all into an almighty floating projectile.

All three of them descended at rapid speed towards the aberration right below them, landing on quick succession one after another, huge explosions of flames, corroding venom and entangling and draining nature covering the aberration of over thirty meters!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

"GRYYYEEEEHH!"

The monster gave an agonizing scream, a large part of its body beginning to wither and fall apart! Everyone was shocked it hurt the monster so much! Its body was beginning to swirl around rapidly, as if it was about to move away!

However…

"GRRRHH…"

Hundreds of magic circles were conjured in a split of a second all around the creature, materializing huge swords made of pure black sludge, with red eyes on top of them.

The doppelganger might lack complex intelligence, but it could conjure all of the original's spells… Or even modify them and make them stronger or more efficient, just by using its instincts alone!

"W-What the…?!" Fabian muttered, a split of a second before hundreds of swords reached them.

They knew what these swords were… they were the swords that almost killed Nyx, albeit much smaller! A strike from these Pestilence Swords was death sentence!

"R-RUN! RUN, SPECTRA!"

Panicking, Spectra quickly started flying as fast as possible from the scene, using her giant phantasmal wings! However, her speed wasn't even enough!

"I told you this was a bad idea!" Nia cried, conjuring her winds, and helping them fly away faster and faster!

The swords kept exploding in midair as they almost landed on them, they were constantly running away from endless bombardments and explosions!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

"T-They're getting closer and closer!" Beery cried.

"Shit, shit, shit! Fuck! I shouldn't had even suggested this!" Nick was crying as well.

"T-This is hopeless…!" Garon cried.

"Dammit!" Fabian used all his mana to constantly fire giant arrows made of Demonite, constantly intercepting, and blocking the swords from reaching them.

CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

However, they kept coming endlessly, and even Fabian's mana was running low after a few projectiles!

"GRAHAHAHAH!"

The Aberration down below also shared the original's body hatred for weaklings, laughing at their despair as the swords pierced through Spectra's phantom barriers!

"Nooo!"

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Countless explosions engulfed them, the aberration enjoying the show as it protected the crystal, even if it felt its original body dying, it did not matter. It would carry out its duty until its death…

"GRRRHH?!"

However, its countless yellow eyes opened wide in surprise and shock, suddenly realizing the children were still alive, flying in the skies!

And what had blocked the several explosions was the huge body of a gigantic dragon, that had arrived from the skies just in time!

Accompanying him was a ghost lady, and a blonde hero…

"M-Maria!" Fabian and the rest screamed in relief after seeing them finally arrive!

"Sorry for being so late- Ah! Nyx?!" Maria quickly changed her carefree expression as she saw her daughter unconscious, with a huge scar in her stomach. "W-What happened!?"

"A lot…" Nia sighed. "A lot happened… But that thing… Almost killed Nyx- If it wasn't for Celes healing I…"

"What?"

Maria's eyes overflowed with utter crimson malice… Her powers constantly erupting from her.

"So it was that fucking thing?" Maria asked.

"To think we took so long getting here…" Lucifer gritted his fangs. "My daughter… We've failed you."

"Yeah, we failed her, but I won't fail on killing that piece of shit!" Maria roared.

Even though she was still worried about Partner and Emeraldine, she could sense they were still alive, her rage quickly taking over her judgement, as a gigantic spear made of her black wood, death, phantom, and black lightning emerged above her, aiming at the aberration.

"DIE!"

As Maria overflowed with utter rage and fired her projectile, something else happened.

Crack… Crack…!

CRACK!

The void right behind everyone shattered, as countless of gigantic void tentacles emerged, spreading everywhere, and shattering the entire pillar of the Divine Array!

RUMBLE!

"GRAAAAHHHHH!!! COME BACK, YOU COWARDS!"

The furious scream of an aberration spread further, countless crimson eyes emerging everywhere, at the same time as Emeraldine and Partner appeared from that crack, flying back to Maria and company!

"IT'S COMING! RUN!"

"You two!"

TRUUUM!

Before Maria could make any sense of what was happening, the entire Array holding all the Domains distorted, destroying everything.

Countless pieces of floating debris spread around an endless void in the middle, all while Blackie ran across the void itself, leaping from debris to debris, carrying within his shadows his friends.

And the remains of his master…

"Arf… Arf…! Woof!"

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